Letter dated February 5th, 1994 - From Anne (b 1908), youngest daughter of Joseph and Mary Ellen (Rash) Kestel

Dear Bernard and Shelia (Kestel - GGrandson of George Kestel)

    I have mislaid your letter at present but I think your main question was how my dad met my mother (Joseph Kestel of Will County and Mary Ellen Rash of Brown County) down in Mount Sterling.  Mother had a brother, Charles Rash, which was spelled Resch, but the courthouse in Mount Sterling changed it to Rash.  Charles Rash was almost a genius as an engineer - he would fix anything.  He worked for the Wabash Railroad in Quincy, Illinois near Mount Sterling and then they sent him to Chicago.  He got a better job taking care of plumbing and furnaces at two big hotels and lived at a boarding house run by Margaret Kestel. (Joseph Kestel's sister)  Well he married her (January, 28th 1890). 

    She (Margaret Kestel) needed help in running her boarding house - and Grandpa Rash (David Rash, Charles' father) had died at some 50 years (actually, David lives to age 73, dieing in 1905, but a family portrait of circa 1890 shows David as somewhat thin compared to earlier photos leading to the conclusion he may have become physically unable to farm in his 50s) leaving Grandma (Margaret Crummy) Rash without income and no one to farm the land.  So my dad (Joseph Kestel) married Mary Ellen Rash (January 17th, 1894) and help take care of Grandma Margaret (Crummy) Rash who is buried in a Mount Sterling Cemetery (Saint Mary's).  Grandmother Margaret (Crummy) Rash thought and awful lot of my dad for she thought he did a lot for her and was very handsome - he was. 

    (Circa 1920)  Another question, how did the Crummy bunch get down for card games?  They had 4 or 5 open top Chevrolets, I suppose about the first ones.  made a cloud of dust a mile high and long they would come - mother slept and fed as many as 25-30 people - hams, bread, potato salad, angel food and other cakes - kids slept in attic on straw pads or teaks, me included.  Esther (eldest daughter of Joseph and Mary Ellen, b 1895), Mary's mother did do a lot of cooking.  The food was spread out on that oak dining room table.  They played high low jack and the game pinochle and rummy - afterwards I stood on a chair in that pantry and washed dishes - I was never very big.  Margaret and Frank Beard would come also when the Crummys came.  Margaret was a first cousin of mothers.  They had a grocery market in Chicago.  They had a Buick car.  Katie Flynn (daughter of John and Anna (Crummy) Flynn) was also a first cousin of mothers.  They also had a store in Chicago but it was not so successful.  They later moved to Valparaiso, Indiana and bought 40 acres but had a hard go of it.  Margaret is my age may still be there.  Bobby Flynn could whistle like a bird, he was once on a radio program.  Elizabeth (Crummy, daughter of Bernard and Mary) and Frank Donlinger had a fruit farm in Valparaiso and a fruit stand out in front.  Garden produce and fruit - apple, berries.  On weekends they would take in 800 or so which was high in those days.  Elizabeth Donlinger was an aunt of my mothers.  

    The Rash family in Chicago - Charles Rash who was married to Margaret Kestel (Aunt Maggie) who had the boarding house where my mother worked had four or five children (5) - Clara never married.  Angela who married a Freudinger, she had about 10 children and lived in almost dire poverty for Freudinger never made much of a living but I understand some of her children did very well in the bakery business somewhere on the west side of Chicago.  Aunt Maggie rash fell and broke her hip and she got an infection in it and never walked again.  Uncle Charles Rash with all the trouble took to the bottle and it all was a sad ending.  They lived to be quite old - late 70s or so (Maggie died in 1927, age 66 and Charles in 1928, age 63).  I hope this will help with a little of the family history as I remember it.  Love Aunt Anne - Best Wishes

    I should tell you about the rest of Charles and Maggie Kestel Rash's family - twins Ida and Mary.  Ida married Joe (John) Paha, had two (3) children Joe and Rosemary (Larry) - Rosemary was a dancer and had a dance studio.  Joe, I forgot what he did but was crippled from polio.  Mary married Al Witkowski.  They shortened their name to Witt.  Had nine children.  There are many Witts in the West Chicago area.  Tony Rash had an appliance store  married a Lang girl - no children.